Current Analysis In-Laws and Outlaws A jury today convicted on all counts Sulayman Abu Ghayth, a Kuwaiti preacher who made televised statements in support of al-Qaeda shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. As expected, war-on-terror liberals are seizing upon the outcome as proof that civilian courts are a superior alternative Darryl Li • 7 min read
Current Analysis The Diplomatic Dance with Iran A six-month diplomatic [http://www.dawn.com/news/1084989/iran-nuclear-deal-possible-in-six-months] dance with Iran is underway—each step as dainty as a minuet because any misstep is weighted with danger. The issue is Iran’s nuclear research program and the UN inspections that are taking place as a Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Saudi Bullying of Qatar Just ahead of a planned state visit from President Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia is brandishing the threat of a land and naval blockade against its neighbor and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member Qatar. Saudi Foreign Minister Sa‘ud bin Faysal threatened such military action unless Doha shuts down the Al Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis New Documentary on US Military's Migrant Workers Starting today, Al Jazeera’s “Fault Lines” will air “America’s War Workers [http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/7/after-12-years-ofwarlaborabusesrampantonusbasesinafghanistan.html],” a documentary by MERIP editor Anjali Kamat (@anjucomet [http://twitter.com/anjucomet]) on the use of migrant Darryl Li • 2 min read
Current Analysis "Journalists Are the Eyes of the World" on Guantánamo Lisa Hajjar’s spring lecture tour, entitled “Let’s Go to Guantánamo! An On-the-Ground Perspective on the Military Commissions,” explores secret renditions, black sites, torture, suppression of evidence, clandestineness and what it means to provide “legal counsel” to detainees in the post-September 1 Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis (No) Dialogue in Bahrain In the run-up to the third anniversary of the Bahraini uprising on February 14, 2011, mass protests with tens of thousands of participants again engulfed the small kingdom. At the same time, a number of contacts between the opposition and the royal family sparked hopes of renewed high-level negotiat Toby Matthiesen • 11 min read
MER Article Demonstrators, Dialogues, Drones and Dialectics In 2011 Yemenis shared a vision of revolutionary change with protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria demanding the downfall of cruel, corrupt presidential regimes. Today, like many of their cousins, the peaceful youth (shabab silmiyya) of Yemen face a counter-revolutionary maelstrom from withi Sheila Carapico • 8 min read
Current Analysis Seeing Through the Fog Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was full of tough talk when he visited the island kingdom of Bahrain in early December. The United States, he vowed, will continue to guard “the free flow of energy and commerce” from the Persian Gulf and keep Iran nuclear-free, through the presence of 35,000 US mil Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 2 min read
Current Analysis Handshakes in Geneva Everyone is happy with the interim agreement reached with Iran in Geneva on November 23 -- that is, everyone who really wants to defuse the tensions over Iran’s nuclear research program. The Editors • 10 min read
Current Analysis Manhunting in Africa The penultimate scene in the recently released film Captain Phillips, about the 2009 seizure of the US-flagged cargo ship Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates, depicts the methodical precision with which a Navy SEAL Team 6 unit identified and then captured or killed the pirates during their doomed attem Steve Niva • 5 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Fall 2013) A major victory for the hawks in the post-Vietnam era was to define “intervention” as military action and its opposite as inaction. Thus, in the recurrent debate over what to do about the civil war in Syria, the options are reduced to some sort of US strike, on the one hand, and nothing, on the oth The Editors • 2 min read
Current Analysis On the Signs of Intervention in Syria Today Secretary of State John Kerry presented documents in support of his case [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23906913] that the Syrian regime ordered a chemical weapons attack that killed 1,429 Syrians, including 426 children. Days earlier Kerry had promised “consequences” if the US j The Editors • 8 min read
